Trade surplus of R8.22bn recorded in December

Business Day LivePicture: GALLO IMAGES/FOTO24/CORNEL VAN HEERDEN on BDLive

SA’s TRADE balance recorded a surplus R8.22bn in December after a revised R0.68bn (R1.77bn) surplus in November, South African Revenue Services data showed on Friday.

The R8.22bn surplus for was due to exports of R88.77bn and imports of R80.55bn. Exports decreased from November 2015 to December 2015 by R4.80bn (5.1%) and imports decreased from November to December by R12.34bn (13.3%), the revenue service said.

The R8.22bn surplus was a 4.4% increase on the surplus recorded in December 2014 of R7.88bn. Exports of R88.77bn were 0.3% more than the exports recorded in December 2014 of R88.47bn. Imports of R80.55bn were 0.1% less than the imports recorded in December 2014 of R80.59bn.

The cumulative deficit for 2015 of R48.63bn was 40.9% less than the deficit for the comparable period in 2014 of R82.27bn.

The month of November 2015 trade balance surplus was revised downwards by R1.09bn from the previous month’s preliminary surplus of R1.77bn to a revised surplus of R0.68bn.